North Lincolnshire is one of the most affordable places to live in England

North Lincolnshire is one of the most affordable areas in England to buy a house, according to research from the Trade Union Congress.

The TUC report, which compared house prices with average salaries in 325 areas of Britain, found North Lincolnshire to be the 15th most affordable location, with house prices on average 4.14 times the annual salary.

But the region has also become more expensive in recent years, moving out of the TUC's 'easily affordable' range - houses costing around three times annual salaries - in 2002.

However, there is some indication that the area is becoming increasingly affordable once more, with the house price to salary ration falling from a peak of 5.48 in 2007 to current levels.

The most affordable in the country is Copeland in the Lake District, with its ratio of 2.87 the only area in England deemed to be affordable by the TUC.

At the other end of the scale, house prices in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea were recorded as more than 32 times the average annual salary in the area, placing the location out of reach for all but the richest citizens.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "London always comes out top when it comes to horror stories about ludicrously over-priced housing.

"But the toxic combination of rising property prices and falling real wages has meant that local housing affordability remains a huge problem for millions of people across the country.

"Houses and flats in traditionally affordable areas of the country are now out of reach for many local people.

"We need an ambitious programme of home-building to get house prices back under control. At the same time, the growing number of people who have no hope or desire to buy a property any time soon but are still being clobbered by soaring rents need a better deal too.

"But housing affordability isn't just about house prices, decent wages are just as important and there is a lot of ground to make up before we return to the kind of salaries that people were earning before the crash."